Compare And Contrast War Of The Worlds

The novel version of War of the Worlds is more effective at creating fear of the unknown with more vivid descriptions and details. In the novel version, the scene is sunset and as night is associated with "when bad things happen” there is an element of fear of what is to come. The author’s word choice describing the crowd and eyewitness when the alien first appears, “A sudden chill came over me.”, “astonishment giving place to horror”, “ungovernable terror gripped me”, and “stood petrified and staring” also heightens the fear of the unknown. There is no such description in the radio broadcast. Next, the author creates a monster, something to fear, of the alien with his description as opposed to the radio broadcast. In the radio broadcast, the alien is compared to relatable animals, such as having a serpent’s eyes, and tentacles like snakes things known to most people and

The novel’s description is something mythical, fearful, unimaginable, and unpredictable. In addition, at the end of chapter four of War of the Worlds that author’s description of the eyewitness and the people creates the most real sense of the fear of the unknown. In both versions, the reader/listener knows there are others present as both provide a version of the people being told to “Keep back! Keep back!” However in the novel, the author provides a description of the other people that creates a heightened fear of what is to come with, “…a dwindling multitude of perhaps a hundred people or more standing in a great irregular circle, in ditches, behind bushes, behind gates and hedges, saying little to one another and that in short, excited shouts, and staring, staring hard at a few heaps of sand.” People hiding in fear, watching and waiting not knowing what is to come next allows the reader to put themselves there at the scene and feel the fear of not